Fun run this team gave us. Thanks for the blog Brian. Can't wait to see what types of moves are made this off season. somebody give Rod Thorn a call and tell him it is time to wake up and earn his paycheck.

Brian, I've been a lurker for over a year, enjoyqing your analysis and write up and the dust ups in the comments. Thanks. I've really enjoyed and learned a whole bunch. This is the first place I go each morning post game. I look forward to another season. I take some measure of hope that with the new ownership, our core of young hustlers, and Doug, the sixers can return to those thrilling days of yesteryear. What an enjoyable unexpected pleasure this second round was.

Brian, I've been a lurker for over a year, enjoyqing your analysis and write up and the dust ups in the comments. Thanks. I've really enjoyed and learned a whole bunch. This is the first place I go each morning post game. I look forward to another season. I take some measure of hope that with the new ownership, our core of young hustlers, and Doug, the sixers can return to those thrilling days of yesteryear. What an enjoyable unexpected pleasure this second round was.

Given the talent up front and the overall youth fantastic season... Gimme a shot blocker/athletic big man and we are set.. as long as evan turner learns toput the ball actually in the hole and refs realize hes gettin killed and call fouls we could hav 2 18ppg scorers between him and a consistent jrue as early as next year with iggy gone... Hats off to iggy incredible player didnt hurt trade value a bit

YES! Hawes needs to go! He had no business even playing a minute in this game. He is a sad excuses for a basketball player. He does nothing right on the court and his basketball IQ is astonishingly low! The moves they make this summer will tell a lot as to where the brass is at mentally with this organization. Was a great season and post season. This team has heart and Doug is the best coach for this team. He just needs a real leader out on the floor to convey the message and control the mindset of the player in crunch time.

Hey, great season guys, this team has alot of heart and has come along way from where we were. Loved the playoff run and hope we can get an athletic big in draft or FA and a shooter. Thanks Brian love the site read it before and after every game.

Looking forward to this offseason mostly for the subtraction since we have no idea about any possible additions yet...but damn if he had had Lavoy in for 00 and/or Brand during a couple of those runs...

Also, since I already got all sappy, have to thank the most understanding woman in the world, my wife. Roughly 79 times this year she's put the kids to bed by herself and dealt with a husband yelling at the TV screen and generally acting like a lunatic. She has the patience of a saint, I'm a lucky man.

Thanks Brian for the hard work and dedication, the blog rocks.
As for the Sixers, I think we can't be disappointed overall after such a great offseason ride that included some spectacular games, but I can't NOT be disappointed after blowing such a golden chance against a team we all love to hate.I would have given anything to put the final nail on the Celtics coffin, and I think we could have really done that. Winning a game 7 like this would have been priceless and meant a lot for the (further) growth of the team, a little/big moment in the history of this franchise.
As for the Hawes comment, I think that you could have avoided that, but I'll gladly give you a free pass, at the final buzzer I just destroyed my headphones in front of my (pregnant) wife, and I turned 41, so... lol.
Hugs from Italy to you and your family.

So as Sixers fans now we should:
1) Root for Boston to somehow kick out Miami because.. well, it's Miami (and also because they would get defeated by whoever they'd meet in the Finals)
2) root for Miami to embarass Bos in 4 games so that we won't have to hear more about the Big Three/Four crap and C's will win 35-37 games next season?

It was a good season for sure where the Sixers met, and even slightly exceeded expectations. I thought the Sixers had a good shot to win the division, but unfortunately came up a bit short on that goal. They played awesome in the playoffs, and once again came up a bit short in the second round. I think they would have gotten smoked by the Heat, since they are such a terrible matchup for the Sixers, but it would have been fun to be in the Eastern Conference Finals and have a chance at the improbable.

Looking forward to a huge offseason. i hope the Sixers get rid of Hawes, Brand, Meeks, Battie, Silas, Brakens and keep the rest of the squad in tact. Draft a big man and bring in a free agent big and a scorer.

One day after the season ends and I am ready for next season already! That in and of itself is an improvement over recent Sixers teams.

Thanks Brian, and thank you 76ers. This was indeed a unique ride this year and will make for an exciting off-season. The biggest thing I wanted to see this season was growth from Jrue and Evan. I think their growth was evident, and the team has a nice core to build on.

Just finished watching. Probably a good thing I wasn't able to view it live and blog it due to other obligations because I would have verbally annihiliated Evan Turner. Just went back and read the game thread (as I didn't want to look at it before I watched the game and find out the result, as I skipped all TV channels last night/this morning that may show the score), and was just as glad and relieved as I was disappointed, to see that Rich stole my thunder by saying what I logged on to say right now - EVAN TURNER KILLED THEM. ABSOLUTELY KILLED THEM.

From his ill-advised, terrible, early jumpers in the 1st quarter to his making sure he guarded the free throw line and watched Ray Allen come around a series of screens to hit a three in the 3rd, to his gotta-get-mine-too-early-in-the-clock baseline jumper when it was 49-45 Celtics and his subsequent possession next time down when he got stuffed on a drive by Paul Pierce with score still 49-45 (though he did become the fortunate recipient of a strip of Pierce on the other end to get the ball back), to his stupid switch onto Garnett but even stupider staying on Garnett and not switching back out to Rondo after EB came back down to Garnett for a double-team and Rondo proceeds to hit his first three in the 4th. Those are just a few that I can now remember amongst my obvious frustration from just finishing watching that debacle. There were more but I can't recall all of them.

Among other changes that need to take place, first and foremost on my wish list is I hope that is the last time I EVER have to watch Evan Turner in a Sixers uniform EVER again. Basketball gods please save me the pain, and all other Sixer fans that are out there sharing my frustration with him, and even those that still hold out however-small shreds of hope that this guy will even pan out and amount to anything. Save them the not-yet-known upcoming pain too.

Whoever that guy was that wrote that article that Rich linked to last week about Evan Turner killing the Sixers was one smart muthasucka!

He's not even worthy of my temporary-depression-curing Evanordinary(!) anymore...got to come up with a new one....

He did have some defensive slips in the second half that really cost the team, but he wasn't the only one. He does have a tendency to cheat toward the lane (maybe because his natural instinct is to be in position to rebound a missed shot) and gets burned by this and some other tendencies. His first half defense on Rondo was good.

But, yes, the comments about him gunning last night are pretty silly. I'd say his performance last night was disappointing but hardly disastrous.

My problem is that people are still looking for silver linings for Turner. Looking at the plus-minus numbers, there's no way you can say that he helped the team at all. Sure, some of that was also Hawes and a wounded EB, but Lou deserved to be on the floor closing that game last night.

Look, I don't think Turner "killed" them either, but that idea is not a consolation. The fact that he didn't help them all is what kills me. He wasn't good period, and the numbers bear that out. Really, the offense wasn't helped at all when they tried to iso and cater to his need of having the ball save the 1st Half of Game 1 and the end of Game 2.

This was an extremely disappointing series by Turner. If Turner could have even mustered a facsimile of what he was brought in here to do, they win the series in six games. These feelings aren't coming from a bitter place either, ju It seems as if even nationally people still think Turner helps the team more than he does.

I've been a believer in him for a long time, but you have to face facts at some point. There is no way in hell you can say he helped the Sixers in that series. Really, there's no way in hell you can say he didn't hurt them. Even if you grade on the scale of limiting his damage, which is a fool's errand anyway, he still really was incapable of delivering when the team needed him. It's disappointing for sure.

Good point Cin. It seems almost a given that Turner will average 8 boards a game next year. A conservative estimate for his averages next year is 12/8/4. And people constantly rip him smh. It's just really people online that rip him though, everyone I know personally who watches the Sixers are big Turner fans.

Really as far as the series goes, he was good in Games 1 and 6. Very good is a stretch when in Game 6 he scored 12 points on 11 shots with five free throws and 4 turnovers. That's not all very efficient.

Do you think his rebounding helped all that much when his plus minus spells out the team was better without him on the floor? I'm a fan of his rebounding, but using that as a mask of him playing below average basketball 5 out of 7 times is troubling. It's not honest.

I wasn't intimating that because of his rebounding he wasn't culpable for his part in their losses. I just don't see them doing as well as they did without him, mainly because of his boards, but also some intangible things like competitiveness and an unwillingness to back down. Resiliency was this teams calling card and he was a big part of that. Of course, turnovers, missed shots, and other tangible things are heavily weighted against him and rightfully so.

Sorry, unclear writing by me. I didn't mean "those who watch" vs. "those who don't." I was trying to distinguish "online" vs. "people I know in person." Like, at pretty much every Sixer blog, bashing Turner is a favorite thing to do. But having grown up in Philly (like most of us), I know a lot of Sixer fans personally (as opposed to online), and all those people like Turner. I made it to a couple games this year and everyone at the games kept calling for Doug to put Turner in.

It's just a weird dynamic that I've noticed. Online Turner gets ripped to shreds, but at the games and among humans I know, everyone likes him.

Either some folks aren't watching the games, or they're delusional. Becuase Turner looks like a rotation player in the regular season, and he looked like one in the playoffs, too.

Forget the */- stuff, and the box scores, too, if you want. There's no explaining away the stuffs when he tried to drive to the hole, the myriad times it looked like he rolled his ankles when playing on-ball defense, and the handfulls of times over the last few weeks when he lost or borderline-lost the pill when trying to shake-and-bake defenders.

He'll look better in two more years, once he learns for good what he can and can't get away with in the NBA. And at that point, he'll be good for 12-6 on a team willing to give him minutes.

If Philly keeps him until the next contract,so be it. But he's not now nor will he be a force of any kind in this league. He'll be good to beat up the occasional rare weak match-up, on the even rarer nights he's feeling into it. Consistent, he'll N E V E R be.

I think I've figured out how you watch a Sixers' game. You focus on Turner every second for the purpose of tracking all of his errors so you can experience the joys of steadily boiling rage. Talk about obsessed.

Well, if he gets traded, you'll have to have to attach your rancor to a new object of hatred. Something tells me that won't be difficult for you.

Brian, thanks for a great season. You have no idea what a big part of my day checking this blog has been - and I really thank you for a lot of thought-provoking articles.

I loved this season and look forward to what's in store for next year. The positives as I see it:

1. We have some young, hard working talent that doesn't shrink from the moment and loves to compete.
2. Anyone they bring in I have to believe will be prepared to carry on the tradition of stifling defense - or DC won't have them on his team.
3. We have an offseason and pre-season ... following by a regular season on a normal schedule ... meaning a year of practice for a group of young prospects that will really gain from it. [I'm hoping that translates to more sophisticated sets and adjustments on the offensive end that makes Sixers games even more exciting.

Now is the real test for the new ownership. The Sixers have enormous flexibility surprisingly enough from a cap perspective. Here's what I'd like to see.r

1. Elton Brand has an Early Termination Option. If the Sixers amnesty him, he can't come back. I'd love to see him exercise the ETO then sign back with the Sixers for 3 years and $27 million. The guy has more heart than almost anyone I've seen in the current NBA ... and with a regular schedule we may be surprised at his productivity. If that doesn't happen, amnesty EB and sign Kris Humphries.
2. Trade Nik Vucevic and our first round pick to move up in this years draft and grab Jeremy Lamb.
3. Lou Wil opts out and become The Boss somewhere else at $9 million a year.
4. Spencer Hawes signs with a West Coast team for $5 million a year.
5. Tony Battie retires and becomes an assistant coach for the Sixers
6. To replace Lou Will, the Sixers sign either Jason Terry or Ray Allen to a 1 year deal at $8 million.

Then:
7a. The Sixers trade Iggy, Thad and Jrue to Orlando for Dwight Howard ... without a long term contract .. confident in the knowledge that they can compete for the Eastern Conference crown with him and convince him to re-sign.
or,
7b. The Sixers trade Iggy and Thad to LA for Pau Gasol.

Honestly, I just care that the Sixers approach this offseason as aggressively as they took the court in this strike-shortened season. It's been a really enjoyable year.

Again, kudos to Brian for a great year. Looking forward to a lot of good dialogue around the draft and the offseason.

You want to trade away most of our offense and become a much slower team to get Dwight Howard? That team would not make the playoffs. You have Howard, Turner & I don't know who else, because Lou signed elsewhere, Brand was amnestied, and Lavoy may be gone.

What is going to attract Howard is the team speed, versatility and youth. Howard is not a center to build your offense around.

Brian, thanks for a great season. You have no idea what a big part of my day checking this blog has been - and I really thank you for a lot of thought-provoking articles.

I loved this season and look forward to what's in store for next year. The positives as I see it:

1. We have some young, hard working talent that doesn't shrink from the moment and loves to compete.
2. Anyone they bring in I have to believe will be prepared to carry on the tradition of stifling defense - or DC won't have them on his team.
3. We have an offseason and pre-season ... following by a regular season on a normal schedule ... meaning a year of practice for a group of young prospects that will really gain from it. [I'm hoping that translates to more sophisticated sets and adjustments on the offensive end that makes Sixers games even more exciting.

Now is the real test for the new ownership. The Sixers have enormous flexibility surprisingly enough from a cap perspective. Here's what I'd like to see.r

1. Elton Brand has an Early Termination Option. If the Sixers amnesty him, he can't come back. I'd love to see him exercise the ETO then sign back with the Sixers for 3 years and $27 million. The guy has more heart than almost anyone I've seen in the current NBA ... and with a regular schedule we may be surprised at his productivity. If that doesn't happen, amnesty EB and sign Kris Humphries.
2. Trade Nik Vucevic and our first round pick to move up in this years draft and grab Jeremy Lamb.
3. Lou Wil opts out and become The Boss somewhere else at $9 million a year.
4. Spencer Hawes signs with a West Coast team for $5 million a year.
5. Tony Battie retires and becomes an assistant coach for the Sixers
6. To replace Lou Will, the Sixers sign either Jason Terry or Ray Allen to a 1 year deal at $8 million.

Then:
7a. The Sixers trade Iggy, Thad and Jrue to Orlando for Dwight Howard ... without a long term contract .. confident in the knowledge that they can compete for the Eastern Conference crown with him and convince him to re-sign.
or,
7b. The Sixers trade Iggy and Thad to LA for Pau Gasol.

Honestly, I just care that the Sixers approach this offseason as aggressively as they took the court in this strike-shortened season. It's been a really enjoyable year.

Again, kudos to Brian for a great year. Looking forward to a lot of good dialogue around the draft and the offseason.

I read theBlog every day and look forward to every new post. You cover the Sixers better than any traditional media organization. I've learned a lot about statistics and the intricacies of the game that I would never have left arned elsewhere. I look forward to your off season coverage and next season

Fun, interesting year. I've got a feeling we're going to be disappointed in the offseason. I know I do not want an Igoudala for Gasol type move. I think that's what we get. I'd move him to Minnesota for Derrick Williams, a 1st, and I guess Martell Webster to make the money work. Make a run at Eric Gordon. If you can't get him maybe a move for OJ Mayo. Draft a big who can score inside and they will have a nice nucleus for the future. I'd try and move Thad too if you can get some value. Lavoy and Vuc are fine off the bench. Get a couple extra picks, you'll have cap space, and a nice future to build around. They shouldn't look for the quick fix. They are more than one piece from being a title contender. It's time to see if Evan and Jrue are indeed the future. Let them grow.

After hearing all those exit interviews, it's quite obvious this team will get blown up in one way or another. Changes are finally coming to the 76ers.

The one positive that i took away from all of it is how committed Joshua Harris is. He has been pretty involved in his first year as an owner and he looks like this is more about "fun" than "business", which seems to be the winning combination for an NBA owner these days. Considering his background, we were all afraid that he might just try to maximize the value of the team before selling it again, but it appears to me he is truly emotionally invested in the Sixers. Of course there is no real proof of this, but lets just say i am encouraged for the time being. This offseason will say a lot about the ownership and their plans though.

I also like the fact that Collins is pretty much becoming an important part of the organization in general, not just a coach. He has his weaknesses, but overall i think he has done a very good job. The biggest reason, why i had suspicions about him is the danger of quick fixes, but if he is truly locked up long term i think he too would like to get things done the right way.

An if they plan on doing it, they need to do it fast. There is no time to waste, the draft and the beginning of free agency are only one month away. I'm afraid there is not enough time to do replace Thorn properly to be honest.

Oh there's more than enough time to replace him, with the guy who is part of the ownership group who used to work for the Kings...I always expected him to take over for Thorn, the lockout and ridiculously scheduled season just happened to get in the way in my opinion.

I always thought Thorn was a GM in name only as the season progressed...that it was just a matter of time similar to when Thorn came in but Stefanski was still considered the GM at first...

If they plan on replacing him with Levien, than they should do it asap and that is a realistic possibility. But if they are planning on conducting interviews and have a thorough search for a new GM, than they might have a problem.

Brian, a great job as usual. I declare June 28th as Festuvas day; take the best available player at #15, [T.Ross?] and get back in the the late 1st round to draft Festus Azieli, a defensive big with a bit of an attitude, to back up Vuce.

If you watch those day after interviews, the one interesting thing Thorn said was that along the lines of they think this team is the one who came closest to the ceiling of their talent in the league this season...which is either interesting in that they think some of the young guys may not have much more room to develop, or that they need to swap/add other talent in place of those guys...

Thorn scares me. I don't know what type of move to expect from him. My gut says that he'll make some sort of Iguodala trade that will neither give us a young player with high potential or salary cap relief. I worry that he might trade Andre for someone like Pau Gasol.

Free agency wise, he might give Lou a decent extension similar to what Young received based on a request from Collins, extend Hawes for about 5 million a year, and use whatever cap space available to give some veteran like Johan Petro a long contract.

I'm almost certain that he made that comment in regards to the roster composition and relative inexperience in some of its core pieces. They have far exceeded expectations and validated, at least in part, their early season play.

I agree with above with Stan about them extending Lou to keep the bench together. Hopefully they work something out with Lou, and Jrue for that matter, to have deals in the works but nothing signed until they use their cap space on a major move. I don't think they can afford to have two near $10m/year contracts off the bench however, especially considering Jrue commanding somewhere around Mike Conley money. Lou will have to settle for less or be replaced, and with talk about needing a backup point, I wouldn't be surprised if they went for the latter.

It's interesting how a potential Iguodala-Gasol trade receives a ton of negative comments around the sixers blogosphere. It was just a year or so ago when a lot of people would have traded Iguodala for a bag of peanuts. 2 made free throws apparently mean a lot.

Anyway, while i do agree that Iguodala for Gasol is not the kind of deal Thorn (or whoever is in charge) should be looking for, talent wise that's not that bad of a deal. Gasol is 31 but i think he still has at least 3-4 productive years in him. On the other hand, i don't think Iguodala who depends a lot on athleticism will be able to produce in his mid to late 30s, so he probably doesn't have more than 5 productive years left himself.

I still think that the Sixers need to get a young big man and complete their young core along with Jrue and Turner, but trading Iguodala for Gasol is at least in "think about it" territory. I do believe however that perhaps a three way trade might be better where Gasol is sent to a third team that provides a combination of young talent and draft picks.

Yeah, i thought it was directed to Lou and Meeks as well. There are plenty of names thrown out there mentioned in connection to the Sixers (in various forms) and might fit this longer on wings ideology sych as: Wes Matthews, Batum, D.Wright, H. Barnes etc.

From Christmas till now, we won 42 of 79 games. Our portfolio has proven to be of mediocre quality. I think it's fair to say, there's much room for improvement.

But before we begin our work, I'd like to acknowledge Corny Collins for his 5 month magic show - - that was a full bag of tricks, Doug, the likes of which the town hasn't seen since shaman Brown rolled through here. Thank you, from the bottom of my arrhythmias. I have only two small requests of you. One, is that you keep your grandkids at home. And, two, is that you shut up once in a while. Please don't take this the wrong way, but a resurrected Hall Of Fame roster of coaches wouldn't know as much as you claim to know.

Now, let's get down to business... I'd like to hear from board member Statman on the advisability of trading Andre Iguodala, a dubiously valued asset for a span of eight mercurial years (ticker symbol: AI9), for "a corporation" of greater compatibility... Statman, what's your take on the current value of this holding? Do you acknowledge a risk in maintaining the status quo? And what's your position regarding the asset's instability, especially as it pertains to dividends? Have we reached a ceiling?

Most GM's and other people who have a clue of what they're talking about or don't despise him for unknown reasons value him a lot higher than you do. However, his nagging knee and achilles injuries might lower his stock from what it would have been.

Believe it or not (not, for you) there are a lot of teams who could use his skill set. The Lakers, especially.

The hope would be to try to trade him for someone young with upside and a combination of draft picks/expirings. That is, if you're looking to rebuild, which I think we should.

Young bigs like on Utah, for example, would be a good place to look.

Another option would be to look to trade him for a backup PG or a pure shooter along with draft picks and/or the possibility of moving up in the draft.

A "skill set" is theoretical. The question becomes which teams believe his practical applications (as authenticated in 8 years of performance) can significantly improve their product - and what price will they pay to acquire them? Iggy will be 29 in January, has 23,000+ NBA minutes on those injury-registered legs and is due to be paid 15 million $ next year. Natural decline is ahead. Fans of his may view him as a gold chip, I think 29 NBA organizations view him otherwise, though I could be wrong.

He's a "gold chip" for teams who need a lock-down perimeter defender (Metta World Peace is more about elbowing than defending these days) as well as someone who is an excellent passer and good rebounder and efficient scorer. I don't see how those skills are unneeded on teams. The fact that his contract is on the downside of its term should be even more appealing to a contending team that would want to invest in something short term while having it come off the books in a couple years if it doesn't pan out.

He's more than just a tremendous defender and his value is not only gauged by 29 other teams, but by several hundred players as well. I think we'll find that a lot of guys, like Kobe, like Howard, want to play with him. These are the guys who know the crucial yet understated role he played on the national team. Obviously, it's difficult for competing teams, the ones who would want Iguodala, to navigate such a large contract for that second or third guy while also providing adequate remuneration, but that is the only hold up.

And that's where you're wrong. You can't farm out excellent defense. You need to be athletic, strong, lengthy, and intelligent to be a good defender in the NBA. Jodie Meeks will never be a great defender, no matter how much tilling and cultivating he does.

If Jodie Meeks makes it to league average defender that'll be impressive.

I do think Iguodala should be traded, but I think this season increased his trade value if anything, and that the sixers could swing a good package going forward if they think adroitly and beyond just 'oh god we have to make the playoffs again next season'

Sadly I don't think either of those are teams the sixers could 'take advantage of' in an Iguodala deal, though he fits better in Minnesota, and they have the youth, but not sure they'd be willing to give up enough

How athletic was/is Jerry Sloan, Don Buse or Shane Battier? You need a good degree of athleticism just to play at F or G in the NBA, but staunch individual defense is about will, quickness, natural strength and anticipation (and a handy mental eraser for the times you get hung out to dry).

I didn't volunteer Meeks for duty.

Iguodala has his D-highlights but he's not a junkyard dog like Alvin Robertson or Ron Artest were (Metta World Peace, a less able entity). He's caught in an identity crisis every year; longs to be entered at Westminster (for which he doesn't qualify). If he were the UNPARALLELED wing defender many around here say he is, he'd have been selected MORE THAN ONCE as an All-Defensive 2nd team member, insular politics of awarding notwithstanding.

You take Iguodala, I'll take the less flashy, lower maintenance Tony Allen for exterior D-work (and pay him less).

Statman, what's your take on the current value of this holding? Do you acknowledge a risk in maintaining the status quo? And what's your position regarding the asset's instability, especially as it pertains to dividends? Have we reached a ceiling?

It isn't often that one is called out specifically for one's opinion on a public forum. Ordinarily, I might view such a call out as a compliment, that someone is genuinely interested in hearing my different point of view in the hope of informing their own opinion. But your sprinkling numerous pejorative terms into your questions, as well your near-pathological hatred of all things Iguodala through the years, indicates that you are most likely looking for more ammunition to fuel your constant and never-ending need to criticize him.

Nonetheless, since you asked, here are some of my viewpoints on the "trade Iguodala" question:
- I would never want Iguodala, my favorite player on my favorite team, to be traded.
- Whether the Sixers should trade him depends on what the Sixers would get in return. The Sixers shouldn't trade him just to make a change, and they shouldn't trade him for the sake of Evan Turner or Thaddeus Young, both of whom won't ever be as good as he is.
- Whether the Sixers could trade him, i.e., whether he has value around the league at his contract numbers, is without question. His skillset is rarer and more valuable than you think. The combination of defense, rebounding, passing, and fastbreak finishing is unmatched among NBA small forwards except for LeBron. Even at his low scoring level this year, he is still a top-5 small forward in the NBA. Any of the four remaining teams would love to have him on their roster.
- The Sixers very well could have reached their ceiling this year with the roster as currently constructed. That isn't a function of Iguodala, though; it is more a function of the limited supporting cast, starting with the lack of a low post presence and the lack of a consistent outside scorer (both of which Iguodala has never had in all his years here).

So there you have it. I'll await your next set of creative Iguodala denunciations; hopefully I won't need to do too much research to interpret them ...

Likewise, as I have stated several times, I find your commentary often interesting and almost always entertaining, though I disagree with almost all of your opinions ;-) I also appreciate your historical perspective (though, of course, there is less opportunity for me to disagree, never having seen the players in the 60's live).

If Iguodala is traded, I will miss our verbal jousts, as there is no one else on the current Sixer roster that I will defend so vigorously. And I am guessing that you will find putting down Turner not nearly as much fun, as Turner fans tend to be of a different sort than Iguodala fans ...

Looking back at last years free agency, I remember Brian suggesting signing Nene as an option. For the most part I believe the consensus was that it would cost too much as a piece that wouldn't put them over the top. In retrospect it looks like just the sort of move that needed to be made. It's too bad he's going to rot in Washington in his prime.

We could have beaten Boston, likely in fewer games, and taken Miami to six games. You can't account for the regular season and seeding, but all things being the same (injuries, etc.) then I think this team goes from 8th seed that was gifted a shot to reach the ECF to a contender that, with Rose's injury, would only be below Miami as favorites in the East.